St. Petersburg Times = Tampa Bay Times

Yup.

Seems like a postponed rebranding that has been slow-coming because of the Tribune lawsuit (Poynter notes the name change is connected with the lawsuit, but doesn't really say why other than the moratorium is up).

I know most SPT readers are not in St. Pete, but it still makes little practical sense to me to change a well-known brand in a struggling market.

EDIT: See three posts down.

 

I spent my childhood in Upland and the Daily Report was our daily paper. I have relatives in Pomona and Chino who to this day still call the merged paper "the Progress."

 

Most of the Times readership is in Pinellas County.

 

Correct. Three quarters live outside St. Pete, Poynter says. My goof.

 

Yes, it was 1990, I believe, which prove that some old habits die hard. Of course, these days my relatives are just as likely to call it "that piece-of-crap paper" as "the Progress."

 

By "young professionals," I assume they mean the under-60 set?

 

The free daily is extremely popular among the 25-50 demographic, being distributed in well-populated areas (including the two downtown districts) and the larger suburbs. In fact, the last I heard from Mrs. Hack was that it is the only division of the company that's actually making money.

 

By the way, the Tampa edition of today's Times has a typo in the headline of the story announcing the name change. The overline reads:

48A Letter to our readers (with an extraneous 48)

You know, the story that appears on 1A. The story under the chairman's byline. The one story in today's paper that should have been thoroughly proofread.

I'm telling you now: The investment in the name change won't pay off if the quality control doesn't improve. And it's hard to blame the desk, which has lost about 20% of its roster in the last three months or so. But more and more errors like these are showing up in the paper -- and on the website -- and readers are noticing.

 

Not good, but not Titantic, either.

 

Or Titanic, even.

You're right, but, still, of all the stories to have a typo in the headline ...

 

Inside joke for fellow STPers, rh...Times wrote "Titantic" sinks